Local MSP Brian Whittle is calling for greater efforts by the Scottish Government to reduce the “massive” bills paid by NHS boards for bank and agency staff, which have risen dramatically in less than a decade.
Across Scotland, NHS boards spend a combined total of £567 million, on bank and agency staff last year, up by more than a third on the figure of £423 million the previous year and more than double the cost in 2014/15 – the first year this information was published, when the figure was £213.5 million.
The majority of the cash has been spent on temporary nursing and midwifery staff while just under £120 million went on locum doctors and dentists.
In Ayrshire & Arran, £30.3 million was spent last year on bank and agency staff and a further £6.3 million on locums. For bank and agency staff, that figure is more than 38% higher than last year and while locum spend had only risen by 2%, it had jumped by 37% in the previous year. The combined total for 2022/23 was £36.6 million, which compares to a total of just £8.4 million in 2014/15.
Brian Whittle MSP said the figures show the scale of the problems in recruiting and retaining NHS staff under the SNP and the financial implications that has for health boards.
He went on to urge the Scottish Government to explain how they propose to bring these numbers down and keep more doctors and nurses working for the NHS rather than staffing agencies.
Brian Whittle MSP said:
“These massive figures show the scale of the challenge facing the NHS when it comes to managing costs and retaining staff.
With the numbers only ever trending in one direction since they were first published, this isn’t an issue the SNP can blame on Covid-19. This is about their failure to properly plan for the future of the NHS workforce and then failing again to properly support doctors and nurses to keep them working for the NHS.
Locum medics and agency staff play make a valuable contribution to the NHS, but it seems as though health boards are increasingly having to rely on expensive agency staff all the time rather than just filling temporary gaps.
At a time when controlling costs has never been more important, health boards shouldn’t be left having to shell our ever-greater sums on agency staff.
The Scottish Conservatives and many others have been warning the SNP for years that they needed to do better when it comes to recruiting and retaining NHS staff if they wanted to avoid the exact situation we find ourselves in now.
Humza Yousaf failed to deal with this when he was health secretary so now it’s up to Michael Matheson to act and make sure the NHS has the workers it needs without ever increasing agency spending.”
